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  • Opening the innings has changed my life: Dilshan

    Tillakaratne Dilshan, who scored a brisk 106 against South Africa, said opening the innings for Sri Lanka has played a pivotal role in his improved batting.

    "I am in good form for last six month or one year and I want to deliver in this tournament also. I have changed my batting order. I think this is the turning point for me.

    "I open the innings which gives me opportunity to play my strokes and take chances during the powerplays so that is the turning point I feel," he added.

    Dilshan was dropped from the ODI side September last year after his average slipped to 25.87 in 21 matches. When he returned early this year to team, he was asked to open in ODIs and he never looked back after that.

    Dilshan got the Player-of-the-Series award after amassing 317 runs at an average of 52.83 in the Twenty20 World Cup. Sri Lanka skipper Kumar Sangakkara urged his teammates to capitalise on the victory against the hosts in the opening match.

    "This game is gone. Whatever have happened its gone. So we have to go back to square one, back to the drawing book and see how we can improve and get better as the tournament goes on. We have got a good start but if we don't capitalise on it, this match will be worthless," Sangakkara said.

    Sri Lanka registered a 55-run victory over South Africa via Duckworth Lewis method in the rain-interrupted first one-day of the Champions Trophy here last night. jantha Mendis claimed three crucial wickets to help his team win and Sangakkara said the spinner was one of the few bowlers whom the batsmen struggle to read.

    One good thing about Ajantha is that even if you see him on and off in a couple of games but still it is a big challenge playing him," Sangakkara said. The Lankan skipper believes his side has match-winners in Ajantha, Muttiah Muralitharan and Lasith Malinga, whom he considers not a mystery but a little unorthodox.

    "Especially with him (Ajantha) and with Murali and Lasith in our side, there is a lot of unorthodox, mystery not as much, but unorthodox match-winners. So we have our bowling attack in place as long as we can back that up with good fielding and minimise extras," he said.

    Sangakkara said it was a big challenge to rattle up a big score against South Africa.

    "It was a challenge trying to build a defendable total. History says that batting first or second is not of a difference here so it was a case of doing our basics right and getting the partnership going."

    South African skipper Graeme Smith said they failed to implement their game-plan but hoped to come back strongly against New Zealand on Thursday.

    "We can't make a excuse. We didn't get our basic right tonight (Tuesday)," Smith said.

    "We got to improve very quickly and we have one day in between before we meet New Zealand on Thursday and we have some planning to do for that game and hopefully we will get the performance which we know we are capable of," he added.

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